Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Teacher Hurt When Old Ammo Explodes in Class
latimes.com ^ | April 5, 2006 | Gregory W. Griggs

Posted on 04/05/2006 7:23:20 PM PDT by rawhide

A Ventura educator remained hospitalized Tuesday after a decades' old round of military ammunition he used as a paperweight exploded in his classroom, authorities said.

Robert Colla, an instructor at the Ventura Adult Education Center for five years, suffered severe damage to his right hand when the device detonated Monday afternoon. None of the more than 20 students in his computer drawing class was injured, officials said.

Co-workers said Colla found the large piece of ammo — believed to be a 40-millimeter round — when he was a child and thought it was harmless. It was a regular fixture in his classroom.

"This is not something he just found last week," said Barry Tronstad, director of the center on Valentine Road. "It's something he played with when he was a little boy."

Tronstad said Colla worked in the mechanical drafting industry before joining the adult center, where he began as an instructional assistant and moved up to instructor. "He's just an excellent teacher," Tronstad said. He said Colla was in his mid-40s and married with school-age children.

Administrators at the center and the Ventura Unified School District are still investigating, but witnesses said Colla was using the paperweight either to bang an object on his desk that was making noise or to get the students' attention.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ammo; banglist; darwinaward; explodes; teacherhurt
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last
To: RightWhale
"It was probably not a grenade but an artillery round, anti-aircraft."

Thanks.

If it had been an old 40mm grenade, it's likely that only the primer would have gotten him (bad enough, for sure). The grenades have to twist (e.g., after firing through the short, rifled tube) in order to arm. I was an M203 grenadier for a few years, and that's why it caught my attention.
21 posted on 04/05/2006 7:50:03 PM PDT by familyop ("Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." --President Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: familyop

Yeah, that would have been bad in the room. Just a finger cut off and some pieces of the shell to pick out of his skin and he was lucky. More of a pop than a bang.


22 posted on 04/05/2006 7:54:01 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: rawhide
"...but witnesses said Colla was using the paperweight ... to get the students' attention."

I bet it worked!
23 posted on 04/05/2006 7:55:38 PM PDT by Nik Naym (Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile has killed more people than Dick Cheney's shotgun.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nik Naym

Hey, Mr. Colla, do that again!



24 posted on 04/05/2006 8:04:19 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: rawhide
witnesses said Colla was using the paperweight either to bang an object on his desk that was making noise or to get the students' attention.

Exploding 40mm round 'll do it.

25 posted on 04/05/2006 8:05:45 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("If you go out there with an innocent heart, you're eaten." - David Attenborough))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rawhide
(Finally, I get to post this):

Where were teachers like this when I was a kid????

26 posted on 04/05/2006 8:18:48 PM PDT by AlexandriaDuke (Conservatives want freedom. Republicans want power.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac
I am really curious as to where he grew up that he found a live forty millimeter round just laying around waiting for a little boy to pickup and take home.

My wife grew up next to the Nevada Test Site. You'd be amazed at what her family has picked up off the desert floor over the years.

27 posted on 04/05/2006 8:19:30 PM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: randog
My wife grew up next to the Nevada Test Site.

Did she pick up any of the pretty green glass?

28 posted on 04/05/2006 8:23:03 PM PDT by Pontiac (Ignorance of the law is no excuse, ignorance of your rights can be fatal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: rawhide

When I was younger, we had some old 20 mm shells we used to bang on with a hammer. Never got them to fire and I am glad now. We did throw some in a fire and they did explode then, while we were safely away.


29 posted on 04/05/2006 8:25:44 PM PDT by packrat35 (The America hating bastards at the NYT must spend their entire life with their heads in the toilet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Donald Meaker
Good point. the old 40mm Bofors Pompom was widely used as antiaircraft round in WWII.

Not quite. The 40mm Bofors is still in current use. The 2pdr pom-pom was a different, lower muzzle velocity, less effective weapon - still in use but obsolete by world war II (40mm upper - pom-pom lower)

2 Pdr Pom Pom suffered from frequent jamming problems and it became the norm to issue a large mallet with each mounting in order to give the offending breech a "Seamanlike" whack to free the guns mechanism up again.

30 posted on 04/05/2006 8:25:45 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("If you go out there with an innocent heart, you're eaten." - David Attenborough))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Oztrich Boy
Exploding 40mm round 'll do it.

No kidding. Two weeks ago, a AA battery that I'd taken out of my digital camera a few days earlier (and placed in my car's little catch-all on the console) exploded while I was driving down the road. Who knew??

My ear (and the side of my head) hurt for two days from the noise.

31 posted on 04/05/2006 8:32:59 PM PDT by garandgal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Oztrich Boy

Thanks, I did have them confused.

I think that we had short range artillery posted all up and down the coast of california during 1942. Pompoms, 37mm, 3 inch guns (later used as antitank guns) or 90mm (also used as antitank guns).


32 posted on 04/05/2006 8:33:12 PM PDT by Donald Meaker (You don't drive a car looking through the rear view mirror, but you do practice politics that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: rawhide

What was it doing there in the first place. If a kid bought any kind of cartridge to school, he'd be suspended.


33 posted on 04/05/2006 9:05:56 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AlexandriaDuke

Love that tag line!

A most fitting thing for the day that "No fat to cut in this budget" DeLay hits the trail.

Now less than 270 to go.


34 posted on 04/05/2006 9:33:22 PM PDT by 308MBR ("Ah fell in ta a bhurnin' ring o' far")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac
I am really curious as to where he grew up that he found a live forty millimeter round just laying around waiting for a little boy to pickup and take home.

Probably on or near a military installation. When I was a kid, my best friend found an old, unexploded pineapple grenade in some woods that had once been a training area at Ft. Lewis, WA. His dad took it to the MPs who then called the bomb squad. There used to be public service announcements aimed towards us military brats warning of the dangers of playing with duds.
35 posted on 04/05/2006 9:35:32 PM PDT by Welsh Rabbit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: DocRock
He shouldn't be a teacher if he doesn't know you should not bang on a live round...>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Any bets on whether he is a registered Democrat?

Acted like a liberal educator to me.

36 posted on 04/06/2006 12:25:02 AM PDT by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: rawhide
This timeless mother's saying seems appropriate...

"It's always fun and games till someone loses an eye"

37 posted on 04/06/2006 3:45:10 AM PDT by AmericaUnited
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: garandgal
No kidding. Two weeks ago, a AA battery that I'd taken out of my digital camera a few days earlier (and placed in my car's little catch-all on the console) exploded while I was driving down the road. Who knew??

I'll bet you had some other odds and ends in there with it, like coins or keys, which managed to jostle around and electrically short-circuit the two ends of the battery.

38 posted on 04/06/2006 3:53:11 AM PDT by Ichneumon (Ignorance is curable, but the afflicted has to want to be cured.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: rawhide
So much for "zero tolerance" at this school. Lucky he didn't have a picture of a gun.
39 posted on 04/06/2006 4:05:49 AM PDT by panaxanax
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: panaxanax

Blowed up real good.

40 posted on 04/06/2006 4:11:33 AM PDT by chemicalman (Many have skeletons in their closets. In New Orleans, we have skeletons in our attics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson